SCORPIONS. 22 a 



reference to the common black scorpion of Southern India, 

 which was observed by me some years ago in Madras. 



One morning a servant brought to me a large specimen of 

 this scorpion, which, having stayed out too long in its nocturnal 

 rambles, had apparently got bewildered at daybreak, and been 

 unable to find its way home. To keep it safe the creature was 

 at once put into a glazed entomological case. Having a few 

 leisure minutes in the course of the forenoon I thought I would 

 see how my prisoner was getting on, and to have a better view 

 of it the case was placed in a window in the rays of the hot 

 sun. The light and heat seemed to irritate it very much, and 

 this recalled to my mind a story which I had read somewhere 

 that a scorpion, on being surrounded with fire, had committed 

 suicide. I hesitated about subjecting my pet to such a terrible 

 ordeal, but taking a common botanical lens, I focussed the rays 

 of the sun on its back. The moment this was done it began to 

 run hurriedly about the case, hissing and spitting in a very 

 fierce way. This experiment was repeated some four or five 

 times with like results, but on trying it once again, the scorpion 

 turned up its tail and plunged the sting, quick as lightning, into 

 its own back. The infliction of the wound was followed by a 

 sudden escape of fluid, and a friend standing by me called out, 

 1 See, it has stung itself : it is dead ;' and sure enough in less 

 than half a minute life was quite extinct. I have written this 

 btief note to show (1) that animals may commit suicide; (2) 

 that the poison of certain animals may be destructive to them- 

 selves. 



The following corroborative evidence on the subject 

 was then supplied by Dr. Allen Thomson, F.R.S. (' Nature,' 

 vol. xx., p. 577): 



Doubts having been expressed at various times, even by 

 learned naturalists, as to the reality of the suicide or self-de- 

 struction of the scorpion by means of its own poison, and these 

 doubts having been again stated in ' Nature,' vol. xx.,p. 553, by 

 Mr. B. F. Hutchinson, of Peshawur, as the result of his own 

 observations, I think it may be useful to give an articulate 

 account of the phenomenon as it has been related to me by an 

 eye-witness, which removes all possible doubt as to its occurrence 

 under certain circumstances. 



While icsiding many years ago, during the summer months, 



at the baths of Sulla in Italy, in a somewhat damp loca^ty, my 



informant together with the rest of the family was much 



annoyed by the frequent intrusion of small black scorpions into 



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